Republicanism

Republicanism is one of the oldest traditions in Western political thought. Its name comes from the Latin res publica, meaning the public thing or public affair. At its core is a particular idea of freedom: a person is free when they do not live under the arbitrary power of another, whether a king, a master or a faction. Republicans argue that this kind of freedom can only be secured by a self-governing community of citizens who share in making the laws, hold rulers to account and take an active interest in the common good. The tradition is distinct from the modern Republican Party in the United States, although it shaped the thinking of the American founders.

Republican thinkers looked back to ancient Rome and to Greek writers on the mixed constitution, such as Aristotle and Polybius. The Roman statesman Cicero was a central influence. In Renaissance Italy, the city republics of Florence and Venice revived these ideas, and Niccolò Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy praised the Roman Republic and the role of citizen participation. In seventeenth century England, writers such as James Harrington, author of Oceana (1656), and Algernon Sidney developed an English republican tradition. Montesquieu's work on the separation of powers and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract (1762) carried republican themes into the Enlightenment. These ideas influenced the American Revolution and the French Revolution, and James Madison argued in the Federalist Papers that a large representative republic could control the dangers of faction. In the late twentieth century, historians such as J. G. A. Pocock and Quentin Skinner, and the philosopher Philip Pettit, led a revival of interest in republican ideas.

Scholars often distinguish two strands. The neo-Athenian strand, linked to Aristotle, Rousseau and Hannah Arendt, sees political participation as valuable in itself and as part of a good life. The neo-Roman strand, linked to Machiavelli and modern writers like Pettit, values participation mainly as a way to protect citizens against domination. Classical republicans often linked citizenship to property ownership and military service. Modern neo-republicans apply the idea of non-domination to workplaces, families and markets as well as to the state.

Liberal critics argue that the republican emphasis on civic virtue can justify pressure on citizens to adopt a single idea of the good life, and that liberty as non-interference is clearer and easier to protect. Historians note that classical republics limited citizenship to a small group of property-owning men and often coexisted with slavery and the exclusion of women. Some critics argue that ideas developed for small city-states fit poorly with large, diverse modern societies. Others say non-domination is too vague to settle concrete policy questions.

Republican ideas shaped the constitutions of the United States and France, especially their checks and balances, elected offices and rejection of hereditary rule. The idea of citizen militias and civic education also drew on this tradition. Today, republican theory is cited in debates about campaign finance, the independence of courts, workplace power and anti-corruption rules. In some countries, such as Australia, Ireland and Spain, the word republicanism is also used for movements that want to replace a monarchy with an elected head of state.